‘I absolutely had to rest after that!’ The most nerve-wracking television episodes of all time
Spooks – I Spy Apocalypse (2003)
This installment starts with the intelligence unit restricted as part of a simulation concerning a fictional terrorist event, overseen by two Home Office officials. As the situation develops, it becomes clear a real incident has taken place and a chemical weapon has been unleashed. The anxiety increases as incoming communications show a catastrophe taking place outside, and intensifies as the boss appears to be infected, with the two officials trying to exit, pushing the protagonist portrayed by Matthew Macfadyen to opt for either shooting them or permitting their exit and endangering the sterile MI5 environment. This being Spooks, his decision is predictable.
Threads from 1984
Threads was low budget but one of the most frightening programmes I have viewed due to its harsh realism and grim official statistics. Watched it about a month ago after seeing the first airing; I used to visit the pub in Sheffield from the programme that highlighted the truth and the casual, straightforward government details that were transmitted. Still absolutely terrifying after three and a half decades.
Severance – The We We Are from 2022
The first season finale of Severance ranks highly in terms of gripping installments. I spent the entire episode actually sitting tensely, straining every sinew with Dylan to keep his hands on the levers that kept the Innies on overtime, while screaming at the Innies to disclose their facts. The concluding高潮 – “she’s alive!” – resembled a outburst.
The 2024 Industry episode White Mischief
Episode five of the third series of Industry caused my heart to pound. I had to pause and get up and leave the room several times owing to the vast degree of the deliberate ruin I was witnessing. Rishi Ramdani is in deep shit professionally and personally – up to his eyeballs in debt to loan sharks because of his compulsive gambling, engaging in dangerous ventures with a gamble on the pound which may result in huge losses for his employer. So of course, he goes on a gambling spree, uses copious drugs and alcohol and alternates between success and failure, is severely assaulted. Whenever you assume things cannot decline more, it does. There is a chance for salvation by the episode’s conclusion yet he wastes the chance, leading to terrible outcomes in the season finale. Absolutely had to relax following that!
Peep Show – Holiday (2007)
Peep Show itself isn’t necessarily a stressful show. But the episode Holiday features such degrees of awkwardness that it will make you rise throughout the entire episode, riddled with anxiety. The tension escalates once Jeremy and Mark find themselves needing to deceive regarding the dog they by chance collide with and subsequent attempts to dispose of it. You then spend the rest of the episode doubting if it can actually be more terrible than burning, and it turns out to be!
The 2001 The West Wing episode The Two Cathedrals
Nothing I’ve watched has been more intense than the first time I watched the season two finale to The West Wing. The installment begins with the consequences of the death (in a traffic accident) of the president’s confidential aide and builds to a peak with a crisis in Haiti, and the effects of the withheld information regarding the president’s multiple sclerosis diagnosis, along with affirmation of his plan to pursue re-election. Superb programming. Unequaled.
Bodyguard – episode one from 2018
The start of the British program Bodyguard, with the hero aboard a train with his young son, ranks among the most gripping episodes I’ve seen. He notices a Muslim female going into the loo and senses something is wrong. The bomb diffuser experts are called, get on the train, and endeavor to coax the woman to take off her suicide vest. Anxiety builds to an almost unbearable degree, until yes, the vest is diffused.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer – The Body (2001)
Buffy enters her house to find her mum has passed away due to natural factors, which is the rarest form of demise in this mystical program. The episode has no background music, a sullen tone, and we witness the episode via the perspective of Buffy’s astonishment upon finding her mother.
The Sopranos – Made in America from 2007
The final scene of the final episode of the program was incredibly anxious. And if you watched it when it originally aired, you – at first – weren’t sure why. Tony’s adversaries, actual and perceived, were all overcome. Surely this has the feel of the season one ending? “Recall the minor details.” Yet the atmosphere is strangely foreboding. Nearly Twin Peaks-like fear. The clan sits in an eatery. Meadow finds a parking spot. Tony sadly tells Carmela problems are brewing with an additional associate collaborating with the authorities. Meadow secures a parking space. Unfamiliar individuals come into the diner. Look at Tony(?) Meadow continues to park. Tony plays a track on the music machine. Meadow parks. The door chimes, a person comes in. It cannot be Meadow, she is still parking. Tony glances upward. Continue. It ceases. My heart dropped from my mouth roughly 20 minutes after.
The Walking Dead – The Last Day on Earth from 2016
I stayed up to watch this episode at 2am. It was extremely gripping following the introduction of villain Negan locating the survivors, cruelly taunting his victims and then keeping the death a mystery (finished with an unresolved situation). The first-person perspective of the victim and the subdued noises – argh! {We then had to wait for season seven|We then needed to await season
